Our Hearts. Joy. Our Hearts are made for Joy

Transcription

1 Our Hearts are made for Joy

2 Our Hearts are made for Joy

3 Contents Preface... 2 The New Evangelization: Building the Civilisation of Love... 4 Part I Structure and Method in the New Evangelization 1 Structure The Method... 7 Part 2 The Contents essential for the New Evangelization 1 Conversion The Kingdom of God Jesus Christ Eternal Life...16 Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict Xvi Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger on The New Evangelization God is the Source of True Joy Preserving Christian Joy in Our Hearts The Joy of Love The Joy of Conversion Joy at Times of Trial Witnesses of Joy

4 PREFACE The following two addresses 1 of Pope Benedict XVI / Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger elaborate upon the theme of Joy in the Faith and in living. In the first 2 Cardinal Ratzinger introduces and develops the concept of Evangelisation as teaching the Art of Living. In the second 3 Pope Benedict XVI introduces the term Missionaries of Joy. In it Pope Benedict also coins the term the Joy of Love and reminds us that our hearts are made for Joy. In doing so Benedict XVI fully agrees with Teilhard de Chardin that Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God and goes considerably further. Joy is the sign of God s presence and action within us.. Love gives rise to joy, and joy is a form of love.. If we are to experience the joy of love, we must also be generous.. We cannot keep the joy of faith to ourselves. If we are to keep it, we must give it away.. Faith brings happiness and a joy which is true, full and enduring.. Be enthusiastic witnesses of the new evangelization! Go to those who are suffering and those who are searching, and give them the joy that Jesus wants to bestow. Bring it to your families, your schools and universities, and your workplaces and your friends, wherever you live. 1 Both addresses have been extensively re-formatted and highlighted by J F Declan Quinn to render them more reader-friendly 2 The New Evangelization: Building the Civilisation of Love 3 MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI FOR THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WORLD YOUTH DAY

5 3 PREFACE Juergen Moltmann, the world-famous German Reformed Church Theologian and erstwhile colleague of Pope Benedict / Josef Ratzinger at the University of Tuebingen, refers to Christianity as being a Religion of Joy. Given Moltmann s definition of Hope as being anticipated Joy we could more fully characterise Christianity as being a religion of Joy and Hope, (Gaudium et Spes). Personally I believe we can go further and state that Christianity is THE religion of Joy and Hope and that the fullest expression of the great Joy and the great Hope which Christ brought into the world is to be found within His One, True, Catholic and Apostolic Church which always is and always needs to be expressed in Charity and in Truth (Caritas in Veritate and Veritas in Caritate). God Bless, Declan 3

6 The New Evangelization: Building the Civilisation of Love Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger on the New Evangelization Human life cannot be realized by itself. Our life is an open question, an incomplete project, still to be brought to fruition and realized. Each man s fundamental question is: How will this be realized becoming man? How does one learn the art of living? Which is the path toward happiness? To evangelize means: to show this path to teach the art of living. At the beginning of his public life Jesus says: I have come to evangelize the poor (Luke 4:18); this means: I have the response to your fundamental question; I will show you the path of life, the path toward happiness rather: I am that path. The deepest poverty is the inability of joy, the tediousness of a life considered absurd and contradictory. This poverty is widespread today, in very different forms in the materially rich as well as the poor countries. The inability of joy presupposes and produces the inability to love, produces jealousy, avarice all defects that devastate the life of individuals and of the world. This is why we are in need of a new evangelization if the art of living remains an unknown, nothing else works. But this art is not the object of a science this art can only be communicated by [one] who has life he who is the Gospel personified. 4

7 4.3 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT Part One Structure and method in new evangelization 1 THE STRUCTURE Before speaking about the fundamental contents of new evangelization, I would like to say a few words about its structure and on the correct method. The Church always evangelizes and has never interrupted the path of evangelization. She celebrates the eucharistic mystery every day, administers the sacraments, proclaims the word of life the Word of God, and commits herself to the causes of justice and charity. And this evangelization bears fruit: It gives light and joy, it gives the path of life to many people; many others live, often unknowingly, of the light and the warmth that radiate from this permanent evangelization. However, we can see a progressive process of de-christianization and a loss of the essential human values, which is worrisome. A large part of today s humanity does not find the Gospel in the permanent evangelization of the Church: That is to say, the convincing response to the question: How to live? This is why we are searching for, along with permanent and uninterrupted and never to be interrupted evangelization, a new evangelization, capable of being heard by that world that does not find access to classic evangelization. Everyone needs the Gospel; the Gospel is destined to all and not only to a specific circle and this is why we are obliged to look for new ways of bringing the Gospel to all. 5

8 6 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT Yet another temptation lies hidden beneath this the temptation of impatience, the temptation of immediately finding the great success, in finding large numbers. But this is not God s way. For the Kingdom of God as well as for evangelization, the instrument and vehicle of the Kingdom of God, the parable of the grain of mustard seed is always valid (see Mark 4:31-32). The Kingdom of God always starts anew under this sign. New evangelization cannot mean: immediately attracting the large masses that have distanced themselves from the Church by using new and more refined methods. No this is not what new evangelization promises. New evangelization means: never being satisfied with the fact that from the grain of mustard seed, the great tree of the Universal Church grew; never thinking that the fact that different birds may find place among its branches can suffice rather, it means to dare, once again and with the humility of the small grain, to leave up to God the when and how it will grow (Mark 4:26-29). Large things always begin from the small seed, and the mass movements are always ephemeral. In his vision of the evolutionary process, Teilhard de Chardin mentions the white of the origins (le blanc des origines): The beginning of a new species is invisible and cannot be found by scientific research. The sources are hidden they are too small. In other words: The large realities begin in humility. Let us put to one side whether Teilhard is right in his evolutionary theories; the law on invisible origins does say a truth a truth present in the very actions of God in history: The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you. God says [this] to the People of Israel in the Old Testament and thus expresses the fundamental paradox of the history of salvation: certainly, God does not count in large numbers; exterior power is not the sign of his presence. Most of Jesus parables indicate this structure of divine intervention and thus answer the disciples worries, who were expecting other kinds of success and signs from the Messiah successes of the kind offered by Satan to the Lord: All these the kingdoms of the world I will give to you... (Matthew 4:9). 6

9 7.1 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT Of course, at the end of his life Paul believed that he had proclaimed the Gospel to the very ends of the earth, but the Christians were small communities dispersed throughout the world, insignificant according to the secular criteria. In reality, they were the leaven that penetrates the meal from within and they carried within themselves the future of the world (see Matthew 13:33). An old proverb says: Success is not one of the names of God. New evangelization must surrender to the mystery of the grain of mustard seed and not be so pretentious as to believe to immediately produce a large tree. We either live too much in the security of the already existing large tree or in the impatience of having a greater, more vital tree instead we must accept the mystery that the Church is at the same time a large tree and a very small grain. In the history of salvation it is always Good Friday and Easter Sunday at the same time... 2 THE METHOD The correct method derives from this structure of new evangelization. Of course we must use the modern methods of making ourselves be heard in a reasonable way or better yet: of making the voice of the Lord accessible and comprehensible.... We are not looking for listening for ourselves we do not want to increase the power and the spreading of our institutions, but we wish to serve for the good of the people and humanity giving room to he who is Life. This expropriation of one s person, offering it to Christ for the salvation of men, is the fundamental condition of the true commitment for the Gospel. I have come in my Father s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive, says the Lord (John 5:43). The mark of the Antichrist is the fact that he speaks in his own name. The sign of the Son is his communion with the Father. The Son introduces us into the Trinitarian communion, into the circle of eternal love, whose persons are pure relations, the pure act of giving oneself and of welcome. 7

10 9 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT The Trinitarian plan visible in the Son, who does not speak in his name shows the form of life of the true evangelizer rather, evangelizing is not merely a way of speaking, but a form of living: living in the listening and giving voice to the Father. He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, says the Lord about the Holy Spirit (John 16:13). This Christological and pneumatological form of evangelization is also, at the same time, an ecclesiological form: The Lord and the Spirit build the Church, communicate through the Church. The proclamation of Christ, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God presupposes listening to his voice in the voice of the Church. Not speak on his own authority means: to speak in the mission of the Church... Many practical consequences come from this law of expropriation. All reasonable and morally acceptable methods should be studied to use these possibilities of communication is a duty. But words and the whole art of communication cannot reach the human person to such depths as the Gospel must reach. A few years ago, I was reading the biography of a very good priest of our century, Don Didimo, the parish priest of Bassano del Grappa. In his notes, golden words can be found, the fruit of a life of prayer and of meditation. About us, Don Didimo says, for example: Jesus preached by day, by night he prayed. With these few words, he wished to say: Jesus had to acquire the disciples from God. The same is always true. We ourselves cannot gather men. We must acquire them by God for God. All methods are empty without the foundation of prayer. The word of the announcement must always be drenched in an intense life of prayer. We must add another step. Jesus preached by day, by night he prayed this is not all. His entire life was as demonstrated in a beautiful way by the Gospel according to St. Luke a path toward the cross, ascension toward Jerusalem. Jesus did not redeem the world with beautiful words but with his suffering and his death. His Passion is the inexhaustible source of life for the world; the Passion gives power to his words. 8

11 10 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT The Lord himself extending and amplifying the parable of the grain of mustard seed formulated this law of fruitfulness in the word of the grain of seed that dies, fallen to earth (John 12:24). This law too is valid until the end of the world and is along with the mystery of the grain of seed fundamental for new evangelization. All of history demonstrates this. It is very easy to demonstrate this in the history of Christianity. Here, I would like to recall only the beginning of evangelization in the life of St. Paul. The success of his mission was not the fruit of great rhetorical art or pastoral prudence; the fruitfulness was tied to the suffering, to the communion in the passion with Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:1-5;... 2 Corinthians 11:30; Galatians 4:12-14). But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah, said the Lord. The sign of Jonah is the crucified Christ they are the witnesses that complete what is lacking in Christ s afflictions (Colossians 1:24). Throughout all the periods of history, the words of Tertullian have always been verified: The blood of martyrs is a seed. St. Augustine says the same thing in a much more beautiful way, interpreting John 21, where the prophesy of Peter s martyrdom and the mandate to tend, that is to say, the institution of his primacy, are intimately connected. St. Augustine comments [on] the text John 21:16 in the following way: Tend my sheep, this means suffer for my sheep... A mother cannot give life to a child without suffering. Each birth requires suffering, is suffering, and becoming a Christian is a birth. Let us say this once again in the words of the Lord: The Kingdom of heaven has suffered violence (Matthew 11:12; Luke 16:16), but the violence of God is suffering, it is the cross. We cannot give life to others without giving up our own lives. The process of expropriation indicated above is the concrete form (expressed in many different ways) of giving one s life. And let us think about the words of the Savior: Whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel s will save it (Mark 8:35). 9

12 10.2 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT Part Two The contents essential for new evangelization 1 CONVERSION As for the contents of new evangelization, first of all we must keep in mind the inseparability of the Old and the New Testaments. The fundamental content of the Old Testament is summarized in the message by John the Baptist: metanoeìte Convert! There is no access to Jesus without the Baptist; there is no possibility of reaching Jesus without answering the call of the precursor, rather: Jesus took up the message of John in the synthesis of his own preaching: metanoeìte kaì pisteúete èn tù eùaggelíu ( Repent and believe in the Good News Mark 1:15). The Greek word for converting means: to rethink to question one s own and common way of living; to allow God to enter into the criteria of one s life; to not merely judge according to the current opinions. Thereby, to convert means: not to live as all the others live, not do what all do, not feel justified in dubious, ambiguous, evil actions just because others do the same; begin to see one s life through the eyes of God; thereby looking for the good, even if uncomfortable; not aiming at the judgment of the majority, of men, but on the justice of God in other words: to look for a new style of life, a new life. 10

13 All of this does not imply moralism; reducing Christianity to morality loses sight of the essence of Christ s message: the gift of a new friendship, the gift of communion with Jesus and thereby with God. Whoever converts to Christ does not mean to create his own moral autarchy for himself, does not intend to build his own goodness through his own strengths. Conversion (metanoia) means exactly the opposite: to come out of self-sufficiency to discover and accept our indigence the indigence of others and of the Other, his forgiveness, his friendship. Unconverted life is self-justification (I am not worse than the others); conversion is humility in entrusting oneself to the love of the Other, a love that becomes the measure and the criteria of my own life. Here we must also bear in mind the social aspect of conversion. Certainly, conversion is above all a very personal act, it is personalization. I separate myself from the formula to live as all others (I do not feel justified anymore by the fact that everyone does what I do) and I find my own person in front of God, my own personal responsibility. But true personalization is always also a new and more profound socialization. The I opens itself once again to the you, in all its depths, and thus a new We is born. If the lifestyle spread throughout the world implies the danger of de-personalization, of not living one s own life but the life of all the others, in conversion a new We, of the common path of God, must be achieved. In proclaiming conversion we must also offer a community of life, a common space for the new style of life. We cannot evangelize with words alone; the Gospel creates life, creates communities of progress; a merely individual conversion has no consistency... 11

14 12 PART 1: CHAPTER I 2 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. In the appeal to conversion the proclamation of the Living God is implicit as its fundamental condition. Theocentrism is fundamental in the message of Jesus and must also be at the heart of new evangelization. The keyword of the proclamation of Jesus is: the Kingdom of God. But the Kingdom of God is not a thing, a social or political structure, a utopia. The Kingdom of God is God. Kingdom of God means: God exists. God is alive. God is present and acts in the world, in our in my life. God is not a faraway ultimate cause, God is not the great architect of deism, who created the machine of the world and is no longer part of it on the contrary: God is the most present and decisive reality in each and every act of my life, in each and every moment of history. In his conference when leaving the University of Münster, the theologian J.B. Metz said some unexpected things for him. In the past, Metz taught us anthropocentrism the true occurrence of Christianity was the anthropological turning point, the secularization, the discovery of the secularity of the world. Then he taught us political theology the political characteristic of faith; then the dangerous memory ; and finally narrative theology. After this long and difficult path, today he tells us: The true problem of our times is the Crisis of God, the absence of God, disguised by an empty religiosity. Theology must go back to being truly theo-logy, speaking about and with God. Metz is right: the unum necessarium to man is God. Everything changes, whether God exists or not. Unfortunately we Christians also often live as if God did not exist (si Deus non daretur). We live according to the slogan: God does not exist, and if he exists, he does not belong. Therefore, evangelization must, first of all, speak about God, proclaim the only true God: the Creator the Sanctifier the Judge (see Catechism of the Catholic Church). 12

15 13 PART 1: CHAPTER I Here too we must keep the practical aspect in mind. God cannot be made known with words alone. One does not really know a person if one knows about this person secondhandedly. To proclaim God is to introduce to the relation with God: to teach how to pray. Prayer is faith in action. And only by experiencing life with God does the evidence of his existence appear. This is why schools of prayer, communities of prayer, are so important. There is a complementarity between personal prayer ( in one s room, alone in front of God s eyes), para-liturgical prayer in common ( popular religiosity ) and liturgical prayer. Yes, the liturgy is, first of all, prayer; its specificity consists in the fact that its primary project is not ourselves (as in private prayer and in popular religiosity), but God himself the liturgy is actio divina, God acts and we respond to this divine action. Speaking about God and speaking with God must always go together. The proclamation of God is the guide to communion with God in fraternal communion, founded and vivified by Christ. This is why the liturgy (the sacraments) are not a secondary theme next to the preaching of the living God, but the realization of our relationship with God. While on this subject, may I be allowed to make a general observation on the liturgical question. Our way of celebrating the liturgy is very often too rationalistic. The liturgy becomes teaching, whose criteria is: making ourselves understood often the consequence of this is making the mystery a banality, the prevalence of our words, the repetition of phrases that might seem more accessible and more pleasant for the people. But this is not only a theological error but also a psychological and pastoral one. The wave of esoterism, the spreading of Asian techniques of relaxation and self-emptying demonstrate that something is lacking in our liturgies. It is in our world of today that we are in need of silence, of the super-individual mystery, of beauty. 13

16 15 PART 1: CHAPTER I The liturgy is not an invention of the celebrating priest or of a group of specialists; the liturgy (the rite ) came about via an organic process throughout the centuries, it bears with it the fruit of the experience of faith of all the generations. Even if the participants do not perhaps understand each single word, they perceive the profound meaning, the presence of the mystery, which transcends all words. The celebrant is not the center of liturgical action; the celebrant is not in front of the people in his own name he does not speak by himself or for himself, but in persona Christi. The personal abilities of the celebrant do not count, only his faith counts, by which Christ becomes transparent. He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30). 3 JESUS CHRIST With this reflection, the theme of God has already expanded and been achieved in the theme of Jesus Christ: Only in Christ and through Christ does the theme God become truly concrete: Christ is Emmanuel, the God-with-us the concretization of the I am, the response to Deism. Today, the temptation is great to diminish Jesus Christ, the Son of God, into a merely historical Jesus, into a pure man. One does not necessarily deny the divinity of Jesus, but by using certain methods one distills from the Bible a Jesus to our size, a Jesus possible and comprehensible within the parameters of our historiography. But this historical Jesus is an artifact, the image of his authors rather than the image of the living God (see 2 Corinthians 4:4ff; Colossians 1:15). The Christ of faith is not a myth; the so-called historical Jesus is a mythological figure, self-invented by various interpreters. The 200 years of history of the historical Jesus faithfully reflect the history of philosophies and ideologies of this period. Within the limits of this conference, I cannot go into the contents of the proclamation of the Savior. I would only like to briefly mention two important aspects. 14

17 17 PART 1: CHAPTER I The first one is the Sequela of Christ Christ offers himself as the path of my life. Sequela of Christ does not mean: imitating the man Jesus. This type of attempt would necessarily fail it would be an anachronism. The Sequela of Christ has a much higher goal: to be assimilated into Christ, that is to attain union with God. Such a word might sound strange to the ears of modern man. But, in truth, we all thirst for the infinite: for an infinite freedom, for happiness without limits. The entire history of revolutions during the last two centuries can only be explained this way. Drugs can only be explained this way. Man is not satisfied with solutions beneath the level of divinization. But all the roads offered by the serpent (Genesis 3:5), that is to say, by mundane knowledge, fail. The only path is communion with Christ, achieved in sacramental life. The Sequela of Christ is not a question of morality, but a mysteric theme an ensemble of divine action and our response. Thus, in the theme on the sequela we find the presence of the other center of Christology, which I wished to mention: the Paschal Mystery the cross and the Resurrection. In the reconstruction of the historical Jesus, usually the theme of the cross is without meaning. In a bourgeois interpretation it becomes an incident per se evitable, without theological value; in a revolutionary interpretation it becomes the heroic death of a rebel. The truth is quite different. The cross belongs to the divine mystery it is the expression of his love to the end (John 13:1). The Sequela of Christ is participation in the cross, uniting oneself to his love, to the transformation of our life, which becomes the birth of the new man, created according to God (see Ephesians 4:24). Whoever omits the cross, omits the essence of Christianity (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). 15

18 19 PART 1: CHAPTER I 4 ETERNAL LIFE A last central element of every true evangelization is eternal life. Today we must proclaim our faith with new vigor in daily life. Here, I would only like to mention one aspect of the preaching Jesus, which is often omitted today: The proclamation of the Kingdom of God is the proclamation of the God present, the God that knows us, listen to us; the God that enters into history to do justice. Therefore, this preaching is also the proclamation of justice, the proclamation of our responsibility. Man cannot do or avoid doing what he wants to. He will be judged. He must account for things. This certitude is of value both for the powerful as well as the simple ones. Where this is honored, the limitations of every power in this world are traced. God renders justice, and only he may ultimately do this. We will be able to do this better the more we are able to live under the eyes of God and to communicate the truth of justice to the world. Thus the article of faith in justice, its force in the formation of consciences, is a central theme of the Gospel and is truly good news. It is for all those suffering the injustices of the world and who are looking for justice. This is also how we can understand the connection between the Kingdom of God and the poor, the suffering and all those spoken about in the Beatitudes in the Speech on the Mountain. They are protected by the certainty of judgment, by the certitude, that there is a justice. This is the true content of the article on justice, about God as judge: Justice exists. The injustices of the world are not the final word of history. Justice exists. Only whoever does not want there to be justice can oppose this truth. If we seriously consider the judgment and the seriousness of the responsibility for us that emerges from this, we will be able to understand full well the other aspect of this proclamation, that is redemption, the fact that Jesus, in the cross, takes on our sins; God himself, in the passion of the Son, becomes the advocate for us sinners, and thus making penance 16

19 20 PART 1: CHAPTER I possible, the hope for the repentant sinner, hope expressed in a marvelous way by the words of St. John: Before God, we will reassure our heart, whatever he reproves us for. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything (1 John 3:19ff). God s goodness is infinite, but we should not diminish this to goodness to mawkish affectation without truth. Only by believing in the just judgment of God, only by hungering and thirsting for justice (see Matthew 5:6) will we open up our hearts, our life to divine mercy. This can be seen: It isn t true that faith in eternal life makes earthly life insignificant. To the contrary: only if the measure of our life is eternity, then also this life of ours on earth is great and its value immense. God is not the competitor in our life, but the guarantor of our greatness. This way we return to the starting point: God. If we take the Christian message into well-thought-out consideration, we are not speaking about a whole lot of things. In reality, the Christian message is very simple: We speak about God and man, and this way we say everything. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Address to Catechists and Religion Teachers Jubilee of Catechists, 12 December

20 21.3 PART 1: CHAPTER I MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger on the New Evangelization Rejoice in the Lord always (Phil 4:4) Dear young friends, I am happy to address you once more on the occasion of the 27 th World Youth Day. The memory of our meeting in Madrid last August remains close to my heart. It was a time of extraordinary grace when God showered his blessings on the young people gathered from all over the world. I give thanks to God for all the fruits which that event bore, fruits which will surely multiply for young people and their communities in the future. Now we are looking forward to our next meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 2013, whose theme will be: Go and make disciples of all nations! (cf. Mt 28:19). This year s World Youth Day theme comes from Saint Paul s exhortation in his Letter to the Philippians: Rejoice in the Lord always (4:4). Joy is at the heart of Christian experience. At each World Youth Day we experience immense joy, the joy of communion, the joy of being Christian, the joy of faith. This is one of the marks of these gatherings. We can see the great attraction that joy exercises. In a world of sorrow and anxiety, joy is an important witness to the beauty and reliability of the Christian faith. The Church s vocation is to bring joy to the world, a joy that is authentic and enduring, the joy proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born (cf. Lk 2:10). Not only did God speak, not only did he accomplish great signs throughout 18

21 22 PART 1: CHAPTER I the history of humankind, but he drew so near to us that he became one of us and lived our life completely. In these difficult times, so many young people all around you need to hear that the Christian message is a message of joy and hope! I would like to reflect with you on this joy and on how to find it, so that you can experience it more deeply and bring it to everyone you meet. 1 OUR HEARTS ARE MADE FOR JOY A yearning for joy lurks within the heart of every man and woman. Far more than immediate and fleeting feelings of satisfaction, our hearts seek a perfect, full and lasting joy capable of giving flavour to our existence. This is particularly true for you, because youth is a time of continuous discovery of life, of the world, of others and of ourselves. It is a time of openness to the future and of great longing for happiness, friendship, sharing and truth, a time when we are moved by high ideals and make great plans. Each day is filled with countless simple joys which are the Lord s gift: the joy of living, the joy of seeing nature s beauty, the joy of a job well done, the joy of helping others, the joy of sincere and pure love. If we look carefully, we can see many other reasons to rejoice. There are the happy times in family life, shared friendship, the discovery of our talents, our successes, 19

22 22.4 PART 1: CHAPTER I the compliments we receive from others, the ability to express ourselves and to know that we are understood, and the feeling of being of help to others. There is also the excitement of learning new things, seeing new and broader horizons open up through our travels and encounters, and realizing the possibilities we have for charting our future. We might also mention the experience of reading a great work of literature, of admiring a masterpiece of art, of listening to or playing music, or of watching a film. All these things can bring us real joy. Yet each day we also face any number of difficulties. Deep down we also worry about the future; we begin to wonder if the full and lasting joy for which we long might be an illusion and an escape from reality. Many young people ask themselves: is perfect joy really possible? The quest for joy can follow various paths, and some of these turn out to be mistaken, if not dangerous. How can we distinguish things that give real and lasting joy from immediate and illusory pleasures? How can we find true joy in life, a joy that endures and does not forsake us at moments of difficulty? 20

23 23 PART 1: CHAPTER II 2 GOD IS THE SOURCE OF TRUE JOY Whatever brings us true joy, whether the small joys of each day or the greatest joys in life, has its source in God, even if this does not seem immediately obvious. This is because God is a communion of eternal love, he is infinite joy that does not remain closed in on itself, but expands to embrace all whom God loves and who love him. God created us in his image out of love, in order to shower his love upon us and to fill us with his presence and grace. God wants us to share in his own divine and eternal joy, and he helps us to see that the deepest meaning and value of our lives lie in being accepted, welcomed and loved by him. Whereas we sometimes find it hard to accept others, God offers us an unconditional acceptance which enables us to say: I am loved; I have a place in the world and in history; I am personally loved by God. If God accepts me and loves me and I am sure of this, then I know clearly and with certainty that it is a good thing that I am alive. God s infinite love for each of us is fully seen in Jesus Christ. The joy we are searching for is to be found in him. We see in the Gospel how the events at the beginning of Jesus life are marked by joy. When the Archangel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of the Saviour, his first word is Rejoice! (Lk 1:28). When Jesus is born, the angel of the Lord says to the shepherds: Behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a Saviour has been born for you, who is Messiah and Lord (Lk 2:10-11). When the Magi came in search of the child, they were overjoyed at seeing the star (Mt 2:10). 21

24 24.2 PART 1: CHAPTER II The cause of all this joy is the closeness of God who became one of us. This is what Saint Paul means when he writes to the Philippians: Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near (Phil 4:4-5). Our first reason for joy is the closeness of the Lord, who welcomes me and loves me. An encounter with Jesus always gives rise to immense inner joy. We can see this in many of the Gospel stories. We recall when Jesus visited Zacchaeus, a dishonest tax collector and public sinner, he said to him: Today I must stay at your house. Then, Saint Luke tells us, Zacchaeus received him with joy (Lk 19:5-6). This is the joy of meeting the Lord. It is the joy of feeling God s love, a love that can transform our whole life and bring salvation. Zacchaeus decides to change his life and to give half of his possessions to the poor. At the hour of Jesus passion, this love can be seen in all its power. At the end of his earthly life, while at supper with his friends, Jesus said: As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love... I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete (Jn 15:9,11). Jesus wants to lead his disciples and each one of us into the fullness of joy that he shares with the Father, so that the Father s love for him might abide in us (cf. Jn 17:26). Christian joy consists in being open to God s love and belonging to him. The Gospels recount that Mary Magdalene and other women went to visit the tomb where Jesus had been laid after his death. An angel told them the astonishing news of Jesus resurrection. Then, the Evangelist tells us, they ran from the sepulchre, fearful yet overjoyed to share the good news with the disciples. Jesus met them on the way and said: Peace! (Mt 28:8-9). They were being offered the joy of salvation. Christ is the One who lives and who overcame evil, sin and death. He is present among us as the Risen One and he will remain with us until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20). Evil does not have the last word in our lives; rather, faith in Christ the Saviour tells us that God s love is victorious. This deep joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit who makes us God s sons and daughters, capable of experiencing and savouring his goodness, and calling him Abba, Father (cf. Rm 8:15). Joy is the sign of God s presence and action within us. 22

25 26 PART 1: CHAPTER II 3 PRESERVING CHRISTIAN JOY IN OUR HEARTS At this point we wonder: How do we receive and maintain this gift of deep, spiritual joy? One of the Psalms tells us: Find your delight in the Lord who will give you your heart s desire (Ps 37:4). Jesus told us that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Mt 13:44). The discovery and preservation of spiritual joy is the fruit of an encounter with the Lord. Jesus asks us to follow him and to stake our whole life on him. Dear young people, do not be afraid to risk your lives by making space for Jesus Christ and his Gospel. This is the way to find inner peace and true happiness. It is the way to live fully as children of God, created in his image and likeness. Seek joy in the Lord: for joy is the fruit of faith. It is being aware of his presence and friendship every day: the Lord is near! (Phil4:5). It is putting our trust in God, and growing in his knowledge and love. Shortly we shall begin the Year of Faith, and this will help and encourage us. Dear friends, learn to see how God is working in your lives and discover him hidden within the events of daily life. Believe that he is always faithful to the covenant which he made with you on the day of your Baptism. Know that God will never abandon you. Turn your eyes to him often. He gave his life for you on the cross because he loves you. Contemplation of this great love brings a hope and joy to our hearts that nothing can destroy. Christians can never be sad, for they have met Christ, who gave his life for them. To seek the Lord and find him in our lives also means accepting his word, which is joy for our hearts. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote: When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart (Jer 15:16). 23

26 27 PART 1: CHAPTER II Learn to read and meditate on the sacred Scriptures. There you will find an answer to your deepest questions about truth. God s word reveals the wonders that he has accomplished throughout human history, it fills us with joy, and it leads us to praise and adoration: Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us kneel before the Lord who made us (Ps 95:1,6). The liturgy is a special place where the Church expresses the joy which she receives from the Lord and transmits it to the world. Each Sunday at Mass the Christian community celebrates the central mystery of salvation, which is the death and resurrection of Christ. This is a very important moment for all the Lord s disciples because his sacrifice of love is made present. Sunday is the day when we meet the risen Christ, listen to his word, and are nourished by his body and blood. As we hear in one of the Psalms: This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad (Ps 118:24). At the Easter Vigil, the Church sings the Exultet, a hymn of joy for the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death: Sing, choirs of angels!... Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour... Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God s people! Christian joy is born of this awareness of being loved by God who became man, gave his life for us and overcame evil and death. It means living a life of love for him. As Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, a young Carmelite, wrote: Jesus, my joy is loving you (P 45, 21 January 1897). 4 THE JOY OF LOVE Dear friends, joy is intimately linked to love. They are inseparable gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:23). Love gives rise to joy, and joy is a form of love. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta drew on Jesus words: It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35) when she said: Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls; God loves a cheerful giver. Whoever gives with joy gives more. As the Servant of God Paul VI wrote: In God himself, all is joy because all is giving (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino, 9 May 1975). 24

27 28.2 PART 1: CHAPTER II In every area of your life, you should know that to love means to be steadfast, reliable and faithful to commitments. This applies most of all to friendship. Our friends expect us to be sincere, loyal and faithful because true love perseveres even in times of difficulty. The same thing can be said about your work and studies and the services you carry out. Fidelity and perseverance in doing good brings joy, even if not always immediately. If we are to experience the joy of love, we must also be generous. We cannot be content to give the minimum. We need to be fully committed in life and to pay particular attention to those in need. The world needs men and women who are competent and generous, willing to be at the service of the common good. Make every effort to study conscientiously, to develop your talents and to put them at the service of others even now. Find ways to help make society more just and humane wherever you happen to be. May your entire life be guided by a spirit of service and not by the pursuit of power, material success and money. Speaking of generosity, I would like to mention one particular joy. It is the joy we feel when we respond to the vocation to give our whole life to the Lord. Dear young people, do not be afraid if Christ is calling you to the religious, monastic or missionary life or to the priesthood. Be assured that he fills with joy all those who respond to his invitation to leave everything to be with him and to devote themselves with undivided heart to the service of others. In the same way, God gives great joy to men and women who give themselves totally to one another in marriage in order to build a family and to be signs of Christ s love for the Church. Let me remind you of a third element that will lead you to the joy of love. It is allowing fraternal love to grow in your lives and in those of your communities. There is a close bond between communion and joy. It is not by chance that Saint Paul s exhortation: Rejoice in the Lord always (Phil 4:4) is written in the plural, addressing the community as a whole, rather than its individual members. Only when we are together in the communion of fellowship do we experience this joy. In the Acts of the Apostles, the first Christian community is described in these words: Breaking bread in their homes, they ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart (Acts 2:46). I ask you to make every effort to help our Christian communities to be special places of sharing, attention and concern for one another. 25

28 30 PART 1: CHAPTER II 5 THE JOY OF CONVERSION Dear friends, experiencing real joy also means recognizing the temptations that lead us away from it. Our present-day culture often pressures us to seek immediate goals, achievements and pleasures. It fosters fickleness more than perseverance, hard work and fidelity to commitments. The messages it sends push a consumerist mentality and promise false happiness. Experience teaches us that possessions do not ensure happiness. How many people are surrounded by material possessions yet their lives are filled with despair, sadness and emptiness! To have lasting joy we need to live in love and truth. We need to live in God. God wants us to be happy. That is why he gave us specific directions for the journey of life: the commandments. If we observe them, we will find the path to life and happiness. At first glance, they might seem to be a list of prohibitions and an obstacle to our freedom. But if we study them more closely, we see in the light of Christ s message that the commandments are a set of essential and valuable rules leading to a happy life in accordance with God s plan. How often, on the other hand, do we see that choosing to build our lives apart from God and his will brings disappointment, sadness and a sense of failure. The experience of sin, which is the refusal to follow God and an affront to his friendship, brings gloom into our hearts. At times the path of the Christian life is not easy, and being faithful to the Lord s love presents obstacles; occasionally we fall. Yet God in his mercy never abandons us; he always offers us the possibility of returning to him, being reconciled with him and experiencing the joy of his love which forgives and welcomes us back. Dear young people, have frequent recourse to the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation! It is the sacrament of joy rediscovered. Ask the Holy Spirit for the light needed to acknowledge your sinfulness and to ask for God s forgiveness. Celebrate this sacrament regularly, with serenity and trust. The Lord will always open his arms to you. He will purify you and bring you into his joy: for there is joy in heaven even for one sinner who repents (cf. Lk 15:7). 26

29 31.1 PART 1: CHAPTER II 6 JOY AT TIMES OF TRIAL In the end, though, we might still wonder in our hearts whether it is really possible to live joyfully amid all life s trials, especially those which are most tragic and mysterious. We wonder whether following the Lord and putting our trust in him will always bring happiness. We can find an answer in some of the experiences of young people like yourselves who have found in Christ the light that can give strength and hope even in difficult situations. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati ( ) experienced many trials during his short life, including a romantic experience that left him deeply hurt. In the midst of this situation he wrote to his sister: You ask me if I am happy. How could I not be? As long as faith gives me strength, I am happy. A Catholic could not be other than happy... The goal for which we were created involves a path which has its thorns, but it is not a sad path. It is joy, even when it involves pain (Letter to his sister Luciana, Turin, 14 February 1925). When Blessed John Paul II presented Blessed Pier Giorgio as a model for young people, he described him as a young person with infectious joy, the joy that overcame many difficulties in his life (Address to Young People, Turin, 13 April 1980). Closer to us in time is Chiara Badano ( ), who was recently beatified. She experienced how pain could be transfigured by love and mysteriously steeped in joy. At the age of eighteen, while suffering greatly from cancer, Chiara prayed to the Holy Spirit and interceded for the young people of the movement to which she belonged. As well as praying for her own cure, she asked God to enlighten all those young people by his Spirit and to give them wisdom and light. It was really a moment of God s presence. I was suffering physically, but my soul was singing (Letter to Chiara Lubich, Sassello, 20 December 1989). The key to her peace and joy was her complete trust in the Lord and the acceptance of her illness as a mysterious expression of his will for her sake and that of everyone. She often said: Jesus, if you desire it, then I desire it too. These are just two testimonies taken from any number of others which show that authentic Christians are never despairing or sad, not even when faced with difficult 27

30 32.3 PART 1: CHAPTER II trials. They show that Christian joy is not a flight from reality, but a supernatural power that helps us to deal with the challenges of daily life. We know that the crucified and risen Christ is here with us and that he is a faithful friend always. When we share in his sufferings, we also share in his glory. With him and in him, suffering is transformed into love. And there we find joy (cf. Col 1:24). 7 WITNESSES OF JOY Dear friends, to conclude I would encourage you to be missionaries of joy. We cannot be happy if others are not. Joy has to be shared. Go and tell other young people about your joy at finding the precious treasure which is Jesus himself. We cannot keep the joy of faith to ourselves. If we are to keep it, we must give it away. Saint John said: What we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; we are writing this so that our joy may be complete (1 Jn 1:3-4). Christianity is sometimes depicted as a way of life that stifles our freedom and goes against our desires for happiness and joy. But this is far from the truth. Christians are men and women who are truly happy because they know that they are not alone. They know that God is always holding them in his hands. It is up to you, young followers of Christ, to show the world that faith brings happiness and a joy which is true, full and enduring. If the way Christians live at times appears dull and boring, you should be the first to show the joyful and happy side of faith. The Gospel is the good news that God loves us and that each of us is important to him. Show the world that this is true! Be enthusiastic witnesses of the new evangelization! Go to those who are suffering and those who are searching, and give them the joy that Jesus wants to bestow. Bring it to your families, your schools and universities, and your workplaces and your friends, wherever you live. You will see how it is contagious. You will receive a hundredfold: the joy of salvation for yourselves, and the joy of seeing God s mercy at work in the hearts of others. And when you go to meet the Lord on that last day, you will hear him say: Well done, my good and faithful servant... Come, share your master s joy (Mt 25:21). 28

31 33 PART 1: CHAPTER III May the Blessed Virgin Mary accompany you on this journey. She welcomed the Lord within herself and proclaimed this in a song of praise and joy, the Magnificat: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour (Lk 1:46-47). Mary responded fully to God s love by devoting her life to him in humble and complete service. She is invoked as Cause of our Joy because she gave us Jesus. May she lead you to that joy which no one will ever be able to take away from you! From the Vatican, 15 March

32 Our Hearts are made for Joy